Interesting article in the Gazette yesterday from Timberline's prospective as a privately owned business in Tucker County. Thought others would like to see it.

http://www.wvgazette.com/Opinion/OpEdCommentaries/201304080093

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201304030158#.UV4Xw9M24Ss.facebook

Can someone translate this sentence from the Op Ed to English? Edit: I guess he's pissed that the state is poring money into Canaan Valley Resort, a *competitor* of Timberline?



So, if I understand this convoluted Op Ed, they want a casino in Tucker County, not Pendleton County?

John, I agree. I cannot figure what the real issue is! Is Fred frustrated and acting as Spokesperson for WV Tourism, or out of concern for Timberlin's future, i would think that Timberline should be able to get a sweetheart loan deal from WV because the state fixed up his closest competitor and Tucker County's need to beef up existing infrastructure to be ready for many more visitors once Corridor H reaches Davis in a bit more than a year from now. Whether we lovers of Canaan skiing like it or not, Doc has got to modernize the ski area with improved modern lifts and a functional base lodge if he is to attract the additional skiers arriving in Canaan in the next few years.
In addition, I do not understand the assumption Washington folks will head for Franklin WV to gamble. I recently drove Rt 33 from Harrisonburg to Canaan going through Franklin, easily the most difficult mountain driving in the area for over an hour. No one in right mind would drive this route to simply gamble, especially with the growing MD casino presence. Maybe he thinks folks would take Corridor H and then go south to Franklin casino via Canaan Valley or Petersburg.
The Colonel

Yeah, I'm having a hard time clearly following the thesis of his argument is or what he wants for Timberline either.

I have skied at 45 different ski areas all over the country and Timberline's chairlifts were seriously the ONLY chairs at any resort I have EVER skied at that I felt truly took away from the skiing experience because of how slow they were. Surely they could be ran significantly faster in their current format without additional investment. Do they run them so darn slow because of beginners? Don't get me wrong, I liked Timberline and will definitely go back, but those chairs were distractingly slow and I really don't mind fixed chairs.

I read this article and it confirms my beliefs in this state and this region of WV. Several great important factors stand out that Fred proves by being a business owner in Tucker County:

1.) When state and federal governments owns close to half, if not more than half of all the land in the Tucker county jurisdiction, there simply will not be economic success on a wide or grand scale. Government is choking the economy by land locking national forests, state parks, etc which leaves only pockets of land for people able to live and settle on. Lower population means less employees. Lower population means less potential business owners to start businesses. Meaning less economic growth in the region and the snowball affect grows.

2.) Fred proves that the government model of buying something, pumping money into it (Canaan Valley Resort) guarantees failure. If the entire Canaan Ski Resort/mountain was sold to private hands, you'd see the Canaan area come alive in the winter with two privately competing resorts earning their ways and bringing out the best in each other.

Being that I own a computer business here in Hardy County. If the government came in, bought a computer business and pumped tax dollars and or lottery dollars into it giving them better tools, equipment, and assets; how can I fight the government who has endless supplies of money when I am fiscally limited? That would drive me out of business not because of genuine competition, but by the endless money supply. In that case I'd close shop, the gov run computer business would be squandering money like the gov is on Canaan Valley and their quality of service tanks and thus all consumers loose. Hence the situation with Canaan and Timberline.

...sorry bawalker, but with all do respect, as a business owner in Tucker County I disagree with both you points...

1. There just is not a sufficient number of customers. Government does own a lot of the land here, and that could be a choker for economic growth in the way, way, way distant future, maybe. However, for now what is holding back economic growth in Tucker County is the volume of customers in the area. Any improvements in area resorts by the government, Canaan or this Casino gig, will bring more volume of customers to the area and not only help these particular resorts directly but will help all other local businesses. Local businesses, state or private, need to be working on their own businesses and working together to bring people to the area instead of butting heads or fighting impovements that will bring more customers to the area.

2. Canaan Valley Resort was on the brink of failure before the government started the improvements. Its not like they are making lavish over the top improvements. That place was entirely outdated and run-down with dilapidated infrastructure. Right now they are simply bringing the place up to low-end modern day standards for a resort. Every business owner in the area is very excited about the improvements to Canaan Valley Resorts. It is bringing much needed improvement to an area attraction. It will potentially bring more volume of customers to the area and in turn all local businesses will benefit...especially Timberline. Local businesses, state or private, need to be working on their own businesses and working together to bring people to the area instead of butting heads or fighting improvements that will bring more customers to the area.

As more folks come to the area with the completion of corridor H the area resorts are going to need to make improvements to their outdated infrastructure, improvements in the amenities they offer, and provide better customer service. People are going to expect a certain basic level of service and amenities that they see at all the other resorts. It is part of the allure of this area that things are a little bit "rustic" or have a "simple" feel to them, but at some point infrastructure becomes dated and needs replaced or updated. Whether it is a private or state run/aided venture these types of basic improvements do nothing but help every local business.

Tucker you nailed it. This is the problem now, and will remain the problem after completion of Corridor H, unless there is change.

Also remember that, to a certain extent, CV competes with CO and UT for the DC dollar. I have heard several anecdotes from families who used to go the CV or SS, but switched based on a cost/benefit analysis and snow and terrain were not the only factors---customer service, lack of amenities and infrastructure were also mentioned.

Dood. Go on up to the Mt. Washington valley sometime. The private land corridor is less than 2 miles wide. And yet there is absolutely no lack of economic growth, no lack of potential business owners in the region, so long as the Boston area traffic keeps coming.

Sorry, I'm not seeing your argument.

As I see it, allowing more people to settle in an area that is already dependent on transient winter-time service employment for cash flow simply dilutes the existing income over more people. Expanding rural settlement would create further liability, further need to subsidize infrastructure and further need to somehow create jobs.

That trend can only be reversed, so that population creates its own jobs, if you actually push the population density to city levels. You can do that in one of two ways - a) put Rockville, MD in the middle of Tucker county or b) restrict private land for settlement.





You mean like HV brings out the best in 7S?

As far as I can tell (and I've got hundreds of ski days at the Valley), Canaan Valley Resort is run much more efficiently than is Timberline. And that is not a dig at the Timberline workers who are great, but at Timberline ownership. Ownership == management in this unfortunate case.

Very weak argument/post bro.

Tucker nailed it. Not bad for a knuckle-dragger.

I've too read that on multiple chatrooms: for most - much cheaper to ski a real resort out West then WV hills!

Yeah...right until one has to splash out for the kids' airfares.

You know, that's something I've heard on several occasions but whenever I have looked at the numbers (for a family of 4) I have never found this to be true. I'd be interested in hearing from someone who has actually found it cheaper for a family to go out west. Just to be clear, I am not saying that you wouldn't get more *value* going out west - just saying that I don't see how it could be *cheaper*.

I can think of at least three families I have had this discussion with over the years, and none of them thought it would be cheaper out west. These conversations were also before air fares starting spiking up.

I think the argument was that after renting a nice house at TL or SS, lift tickets, etc. for the family you are in the thousands of dollars with little or no amenities at these resorts. Spending some more discretionary dollars for a trip out west starts to enter the mind.

In fairness to WV, I think the NE resorts have this issue as well, and add cold temps to the equation.

The gaming industry is a dying source of income for West Virginia. I think I might agree with Fred's poorly stated point that a casino in Franklin WV might not be the best investment for a state with limited funding for tourism. Someone who wants to can build a casino just about anywhere but you need certain "natural infrastructure" to develop a ski area.

I think, not sure, that Timberline received TIF money to build their "slopeside hotel and conference center" and maybe for snowmaking improvements.

I'd rather see West Virginia invest in tourism like skiing than another casino.

Now /that/ is well put, and quite believable.

(EDIT: I do have to acknowledge a reader bias in that I think gambling is a dying source of income for everyplace that isn't Vegas or Monaco.)

Lack of amenities and not cost are the real driving factors to why skiers stay away from Timberline and Canaan. A lot of skiers have family members who do not ski, or if they do, they only ski for a couple of hours and then move on to other activities. How much is there in the Davis area to keep a family entertained for a multi-day trip?

I know my wife isn't interested in staying in a rented house or room (even if it has wi-fi) all day while I ski. The shops around Davis and Thomas can provide a day's worth of entertainment for her. What she would really like is for there to be non-skiing activities at the ski area so we can meet at times during the day while I'm skiing. The one trip we did to Snowshoe this year was nice as I she could wander around the village and we met at designated times during the day.

Add to the lack of non-skiing activities is the lack of good, affordable hotel rooms for couples and individuals that don't want to rent a house. Perhaps the rooms at Canaan Valley have had a significant upgrade, but they weren't that nice when I stayed there before. The Canaan Valley hotel rooms also seem overpriced when you aren't getting them at a discounted rate. If I'm going to pay 100 or more a night for a room, I expect it to be a nice, clean room that is pleasant to spend some time in.

So you have an area where decent lodging is expensive and there isn't much outside of skiing to do. That isn't a combination that is going to draw skiers from the DC area.

Except for the lifts, I enjoy skiing at Timberline. However, I don't see it as a place that would interest the average DC area skier.

I'm not sure I understand this qualifier. Are you saying NE resorts lack amenities compared to Western resorts?

Compared to WVa, cold temps would extend the season (more date options) and provide for more reliable snowmaking, so I don't really see how that is a downside?

I took a family of four to Snowy Luau for a weekend for the price of one airfare to the west coast in January.

You're kinda bolstering the pro-government point of the thread - witness: unless the 'much outside' is something like sledding-austrian style or snowshoeing tours or shooting, it would be far more direct return on investment to build the 'something else to do' in the DC area proper. And the only thing that can skew that return on investment in WVa's favor is subsidies.

Are there any areas in NC, VA, WV, MD, PA have that at the ski area besides Snowshoe? Or even in NY?

7S sort of has that (and an indoor pool and an indoor bowling alley).

I should point out that bigger resorts out West kinda make the entire concept of 'meet a non-skier at times during the day' seriously un-fun for the skier. Imagine having to get all the way from Jupiter bowl to Town Lift at PCMR more than once; imagine having to get from 9990 to Condo Row at the Canyons more than once; imagine having to get from the T-bar to Peak 9 base at Breck more than once (OK that one is doable). Vail would be a cat-tracking PITA. Copper and Keystone would be doable, but they make up for that by having smaller base villages with less entertaining-type stuff. And anyone who has dealt with the California-side lines at Heavenly would just go 'oof' at the thought.

AHA! Solution! *does brainwave celebration dance* The solution is: Snowbasin. The bathrooms are totally worth 4-5 hours of a newspaper-reading relaxation type of day.

Djop, I think I may be mixing issues and I take you point, but I have shared a lift ride with many an east coaster out west and the conversation inevitably has a line similar to this:

I used to ski in Vermont [or other NE state] but . . . . . . .

I suspect others have had the same experience and to me this is almost as ubiquitous as the converse line on the east coast: "this trail would be a green out west."

So the point I was trying to make is that the NE resorts are competing as well for that discretionary mid-atlantic dollar.

JohnL, the midwesterners I know (family types) prefer Wisp, Holiday Valley, and 7S to the valley or SS, even with the known fact of better snow conditions in WV. Actually, the one complaint that I heard was not spa treatments, but just a decent grocery store.

I recall someone, and it could have been you JohnL, indicating on a thread here years back that their scariest skiing experience ever was going into the bathroom at TL on a Saturday afternoon.

One of the best DC Ski lines ever to me, but helps to prove the point here.

Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.

"I know my wife isn't interested in staying in a rented house or room (even if it has wi-fi) all day while I ski. The shops around Davis and Thomas can provide a day's worth of entertainment for her. What she would really like is for there to be non-skiing activities at the ski area so we can meet at times during the day while I'm skiing. The one trip we did to Snowshoe this year was nice as I she could wander around the village and we met at designated times during the day."

This is getting dangerous...The quote above is kryptonite to Canaan Valley...this is a SUPER Natural place that just needs the Gov't to get out of the ski buis...get out of ANY buis..thats not its role!...
Its also a place that needs the Private owner to step up or step out to bring in the money and new energy to get us up to Par.

To get back to the Original post...Shopping is Not a Mountain Activity...Hiking..Walking the Dog in a live pristine Picture postcard..Snowshoeing..ECT....!!!!!...Do you go to the beach if you dont swim?...will I fell sorry for you if your bored?...ck out my Game room in my basement up at Canaan...read the million books I have stashed up there...I have a sweet collection of movies...what the frick do you want????..STARE AT THE VIEW..with a stiff drink in your hand!

Have sex with my hot tub guy while everyone else is skiing??

I would like to point out that millions of people answer 'Yes' to this, then proceed to walk the boardwalks and eat the fudge/salt water taffy and play minigolf and go out to dinner and spend money at Barnacles'R'Us.

A quick follow up..If you dont Ski..you Prob dont Fish..so that leaves Shopping.
It took me about an hour to drive what would have taken me 10 minutes up at Canaan in the DC area the last (And Hopefully Last) time I was up there..that would give you a range of shopping from elkins to Oakland and everything in between....Spend it!!

KRYPTONITE to Canaan Valley!!!!!

Ever been to the bathroom at Mad River? It's the world's only ski area with a single chair and a quad urinal. I am old enough to recall when every ski area, even the vaunted Stowe, had those horse troughs. Skiers were expected to leave their refined sensibilities at home in NY or Boston. Sheesh! You came here to ski, right?

The role of government is whatever we want it to be and what we want it to be is played out in the game of politics. That is the basic premise of democratic government. Stop your anti-government ranting. It is un-American.

Some things are more important.

Mad River Glen. Pee here if you can?

Need a new keyboard again!

Alcohol and sex cure a lot of ills.

This thread is better than The Untopic.

Yep. That was my quote.

Still not following your point. I've always agreed that T-Line is a dump. Not sure what point I've made on this thread you're refuting. But I may be a bit distracted since I'm filling out a hot tub guy job application as I'm typing this.

Didn't take long for this forum to round into prime off-season form. Great job, everybody!

Ever see Jaws?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frozen_%282010_American_film%29

Horse troughs don't scare me. T-Line's black hole is a different beast. That's why I use the woods.

First date movie?

The important takeaway here being that only bears can climb lift towers. Safety bars are sufficient precaution against wolf attack.

Wow, a casual observer might say we spend a lot more type typing than skiing! This is a pretty funny thread.

Being a skier, I am just fine with the level of development in Tucker county. The uphill capacity matches the size of the mountains and all I need is one grocery store and one pizza joint and one bar. But I admit it is really hard to justify the seven hour drive to anyone else.

Being a statistician type, I am thinking maybe I can publish a study on "The Economic and Well Being Effects of the Ski Industry on Local Populations and Interaction Effects with the Hot Tub Service Industry."

IMO, Canaan Valley really does not look all that different than Carrabasset Valley. Believe me, there is nothing to do outside Sugarloaf other than snow machining, which might actually be more popular. This table compares Tucker County and Franklin County, ME, and Orleans County, VT (Jay Peak), and Pocahontas County (Showshoe).

Measure........................Tucker...... Frankin.....Orleans.....Pocahontas
Square Miles....................421.........1744..........721...........942
Population.......................7141.........30768......27231........8719
Density...........................18.1.........18.0.........39...........9
Median household income....$26250.......$31459.....$31084.......$26401
%families below poverty line...14.9%........10.7%.....10.6%........12.7%

The are pretty close, but the two WVA counties clearly lag the other two. However, the median household income for all of WVA is $38,029, which ranks 48th. It is the only state to be entirely classifid as Appalachia. Orleans County is the poorest county in Vermont, but also has the highest rate of 2nd home ownership.

So maybe tourism is not so vaunted.

I did not yet find data on just how many hot tub guys there are in Tucker and how their perceived quality of life differs from the average population (outside of the movie Hot Dog). I'll keep looking

First date foreplay?

Also, maybe Fred should start at home. There is no wikipedia page for Tline. The 'official' Tucker County Web Site (http://www.tuckercounty.wv.gov/Pages/county-faq.aspx) does not even list skiing nor Tline in it's resources. And then this: "Its economic base includes coal, limestone quarries, lumber production, livestock, dairy, and fruit farms." No tourism nor skiing. Nor hot tubs.

I also thought this quote from the CVSP entry on Wikipedia was telling. This sort of supports Andy's point about guvmint meddling in private business... Perhaps without CVSP, Weiss Knob would have flourished ??

"In 1955, University of Virginia School of Law student Robert Barton established Weiss Knob Ski Area, climbing the slope of Weiss Knob above the Cabin Mountain site to a height of 3,900 feet (1,200 m). It featured 60 acres (0.24 km2) of terrain serviced by a t-bar as well as three rope tows.[5] This site was acquired by the state of West Virginia in 1959,[3] so Barton reopened "Weiss Knob Ski Area" at a new site on Cabin Mountain's Bald Knob. Opening in fall 1959, the new site featured four rope tows and the first snowmaking equipment in West Virginia; in its first season, 412 inches (10.5 m) of snow fell, burying the equipment and closing the facility for the year.[6] The resort remained open until 1970, when the impending opening of Canaan Valley Resort prompted Barton to go out of business.[3] This new ski area was actually a redevelopment of the original Weiss Knob site;[5] the second Weiss Knob site would be re-opened as the second home of White Grass Ski Touring Center in 1981.[7]"

And how about 412 inches of snow !! Can you imagine that now in WV ???

Just when you thought it was safe to start the water jets...

If you click through to Dave Lesher's article that forms the basis for the Wiki entry -- http://www.whitegrass.com/downloads/CV.ski.history.story.pdf.pdf -- the state park was a factor in the 1959 shutdown (and shift) but not necessarily the 1970 one. That article is in fact strangely silent on the 1970 closure.

This was back when everyone thought the world was coming to end due to global cooling.

Sort of meandering (sort of) back to the OP. How many ski areas have a wikipedia entry? Or businesses for that matter?

I'll admit, wikipedia is one of the last places I'd look for skiing info. (It's a great site for scads of other summary references, especially for tech topics.)

Speaking of info on skiing the valley, feel free to comment on the two following WIP pages:

http://www.epicski.com/products/timberline-four-seasons-resort

http://www.epicski.com/products/canaan-valley-resort

The lack of marketing at TL is just mind boggling. When I first heard about the snowmobile race, I did a search and the only thing that came up was this EC XC Championship. Which states the championship had already been held. If you do a search now, some posts on FB come up. What's even weirder, the locals knew nothing about the race.

Does anyone know if they had a good turn out (paying customer wise)?

I think you really need to underline the contrast between snow conditions in the Valley with a) conditions elsewhere and b) weather in the metro DC area.


I think one of the better ways to do that would be to have actual snapshots (and conditions summaries) of specific Valley days set against actual snapshots (and conditions summaries) of the same days elsewhere. Sorry, but summary reviews and stats simply don't carry the same impact, not by half. Especially when the summary reviews are compiled by fans/ambassadors.

Right now, Chip is the only one waving a visible real-day differences banner. That needs to change.

Secondly, I think that a visual (meaning: graphical) presentation of the layout of T-line / Wgrass/ CV would be a huge help to anyone actually needing to make a go/no go multiday decision. At present, as far as any lay visitor to any one of the websites can tell, CV is as far away from TL as 7S is from LM.

Thirdly, I think the access options need to be explained better. Explain Corridor H, in its current state and in its future possibilities with map links and overlays. Explain access from the North from MD/PA with map links and overlays. Explain the options in case of weather. Explain that the 'road' through Dolly Sods don't go to Aintree.

LMK if you want further ideas. Consultant fees are all payable in high test liquor.

Thanks for the input. Interesting points, but the visual map links are well beyond the scope of the effort as is the detailed weather comparison. But I can see how summarizing (in text) some of the prominent travel options and how close the valley areas are would be useful.

*shrug* your call m8; afaict this thread wouldn't exist if the things I mention weren't beyond the scope of the area owners' efforts.

*has a fleeting sad, then remembers that its the season for chix on skates*

Big difference. T-Line owners are paid, I'm not.

Which was at least 60% of my point, I think.

Ok, let's meander some more. wikipedia lists 259 total ski areas east of the rockies; 162 have entries, 62%, including Canaan Valley, Wisp, Snowshoe, Winterplace, Whitetail, and Seven Springs. You might not look there, but it does show up on web searches and its a good indicator of the amount of effort they put into it. You got to preach beyond the choir.

That's because the county seat and majority of the populous is down in the lowlands of Parsons where it barely even snows. It's a whole 'nother world there where the local-locals hate snow, have never been to the dolly sods, and maybe not even blackwater falls and they consider most of the folks who live "up on the mountain", to all be 'tree-hugging granolas'.

The actual tourism website for Tucker Co. is far more progressive and run by more enthusiastic people.
http://canaanvalley.org/

Still not buying the usefulness of Wikipedia entries for ski areas. If you know a ski area exists, the official area site shows up higher in the search than does a Wikipedia site. Most people will go there first (and maybe only site.)

If you do a more general search, say "ski areas near washington dc" or "ski areas pa", aggregator sites such as DCSki or OnTheSnow, or specific official ski are sites show up. No Wikipedia entries on the first page.

Maybe only, and yet maybe not only. I don't think prospective multi-day visitors (who presumably have the wallets for overnight stay but not the wallets for flying to Steamboat on a whim) are going to be quite exactly trusting of official area sites.



Unless the searcher has learned to type the word 'wiki' into the search box, precisely because the burden of trust is, to them, apparently lighter with Wikipedia articles than with strange-to-them aggregator sites. I submit that following a Wikipedia link to an aggregator site confers more legitimacy on the aggregator site than following a search engine link. Legitimacy in two ways - a) the link is trustworthy b) the information is actually present on the linked page and it isn't just another advertising pitch or another bait'n'switch click collector.

I disagree. I think there is a healthy dose of skepticism for wiki sites, especially for commercial (and government) enterprises and political topics. Plenty of recent controversy about who is updating the pages. Provided people can clearly distinguish ads from search results (Google is flirting with disaster here), I think most people trust search results more (provided the sites look legit) than wikipedia.

People prolly trust well-known national review sites more than all of the above (TripAdvisor?) But I think most people realize there will be some outliers on reviews.

Once people find and trust sites like DCSki, EpicSki, etc., I think they'll trust them the most.

Conjecture here by both of us.

TripAdvisor says Timberline is ranked #5 of 6 attractions near Davis, WV. hahahahahahahahha.

Dood, well into Bayesian territory there - I'm gonna leave that bit to pagamony.



Certainly.

I submit that, absent further evidence, our task is to look for and eliminate self-inconsistent conjecture.

Good use of the term Bayesian! But now we have to model our variance as well as our expectations, that's gonna have to be a following paper. Stats is all about modeling inconsistency, no problem.

...is anyone following this story in the media or legislature...extremely predictable...time to start updating some infrastructure...

We b working on making mor drinkin stock 4 Canaanis Valley.

People gotta eat and drink. Then we will git to a larger brown trout farm.

Word is the old restaurant/convienence store/hotel in Davis by the bridge may come up for auction/sale soon.

Maybe put in a casino there.

I'm still not sure what has upset the owner of the Tline. Did he apply for a casino license and not get one? If not then why does he care that an attraction that will draw more net visitors to the area (granted in a nearby county, not Tline's) has been secured w/ the help of a lobbyist. More people in WV will result in increased exposure for Tline.

Now as to what draws people to ski areas the answer is simple: All kinds of things. Some simply want to ski, eat, sleep, and ski some more. Others want to shop, luxuriate, while perhaps skiing for a few hours. Most fall somewhere in between.

For example if I'm in Park City for a week my usual daily routine will be an egg or two for breakfast, ski, PBJ or granola bar for lunch on the slopes, ski, tuna or 7-1l burrito for dinner washed down with a few beers, hot-tub, sleep, repeat. However, one or two nights I like to go out to dinner and bar-hop.

I think he is upset that the state is so supportive of the casino and not at all supportive of Timberline. It must also grate that Canaan Valley is getting a big influx of money from the state and Timberline is not. The former is rational, the latter is not. Nobody ever said that life was fair.

Added,

...but the state is not supportive of that casino bill at all...that bill never even made it out of committee...


http://www.wvgazette.com/News/PhilKabler/201304120194

Sound to me like Fred scared them so much they just dropped it. What's the corn lookin like for this weekend?

5+ years ago, I developed an AREA WEBSITE in hopes of having the locals build something for the visitors of Canaan Valley. The original goal was: for the people / by the people.

Maps (lots of maps) for visual reference...
ATMs on a map, Dining with info and contact info, Places to take photos, Rentals, SERVICES, WiFi zones, Trails and trail maps and more...
http://www.VisitCanaan.com

1. By the people / for the people?
That didn't work... only 5 businesses replied with the needed info.

2. Trail Maps?
Somewhat useful and viewed quite a bit

3. Visually SEE how far/close things are?
That works... for the unfrequent visitor

4. Daily Photos - 7 days a week?
That's probably the reason #1 why people visit the site

5. Event Photo Coverage?
It is immensely popular and viewed so much that I am still surprised to this day.

6. Attractions (and their proximity)?
First time visitors seem to really enjoy this one.
They go to the site, and click on Attractions (left main menu) - at a glance they can see how close everything is. Bird's eye-view: every 2 miles, there is something to do in Canaan Valley.

My point is:
Everything is there but the locals have a lot more work on their hands. I don't mean "just Timberline".

The food industry (and we all need to eat) isn't very welcoming. For the most part, I used to eat out "all the time". I am saving 1000's of dollars a year basically because the service is totally unbearable in Canaan Valley. Tip Top, and White Grass remain about the only places I actually enjoy going to for good food and great ambiance (and WELCOMING).

I see Canaan Valley like this:
Every store, and every service-oriented business being about Tourism - even if they don't like it, it's about TOURISM.

Corridor H is inevitable - and it's an amazing project that will bring more tourists.

All business have to learn how to deal with more visits to the valley; "how to better deal with tourism".

Timberline has to do its part (customer service, infrastructure, etc...) but so do the many many other businesses. Canaan Valley ski area must work on the customer service (it all went a-Wall this year while visiting their food service). Other restaurants have to learn to be more welcoming... the minute someone enters their establishment.

In other words:
Pump all the money you want into CV, and I say: so what?! They still suck.
The private sector has no money and I say: so what?! Can't they be welcoming?

We can all do better.

Well said, and unfortunately so true!
Do you see any efforts to plan for a busier future? Any informal or formal organizations being formed? Any action to get government grants?
"If you build it, more of them will come!"
The Colonel

I had the pleasant visit of Senator Bob Williams - twice in two years... he was imminent on the subject: "Get Ready, just get ready and tell everyone".

That was back in Dec 2011, but since then, the town of Davis has done very little as far as readiness. The town of Thomas (2 or so miles down the road) is slowly getting ready, mostly with town improvement which have turned out really well.

All of this is about infrastructure: buildings, parks, etc...
I am just wondering about the more subtle changes; the ones providing more impact: Learning to deal with tourism, and here's a new one: "how to be more welcoming" and profit from Tourism.

So far... I wish we were MORE ready and every time we have a free course on tourism / hospitality, I wish more people would take it seriously.

The main shopping/restaurant area in Thomas is becoming a nice area to spend some time in. The Purple Fiddle is a great place to hear really good live music, there are a couple of really good restaurants and a nice coffee shop, and some great art galleries as well.

Outside of that one shopping/restaurant street in Thomas, there is a lot of work to be done to get ready for an influx of tourists.